The Washington Capitals held their morning skate at 10:30 AM Monday morning at MedStar Capitals Iceplex. Game 4 of their first round series with the Panthers is tonight at Capital One Arena. Puck drop is set for 7:00 PM. The Capitals lead the series, 2-1.
Once again Tom Wilson did not participate in the team’s morning skate and will likely be out for Game 4. He remains officially listed as “day-to-day”.
There were no line changes from Saturday’s Game 3 lineup for the Capitals. The lines at morning skate:
Capitals lines during AM skate before Game 4:
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Oshie
Johansson-Backstrom-Mantha
McMichael-Eller-Sheary
Larsson-Dowd-HathawayFehervary-Carlson
Orlov-Jensen
TvR-Schultz— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) May 9, 2022
Ilya Samsonov will get the start in goal for the Capitals. He stopped 28 of the 29 shots he faced for a .967 save percentage and his first career postseason win in Game 3 on Saturday.
Caps-Cats Game 4
Washington took a 2-1 series lead after a 6-1 victory in Game 3 on Saturday behind a 29-save performance from goaltender Ilya Samsonov. Six different players scored for the Caps, who recorded their largest margin of victory in a playoff game since defeating Carolina 6-0 in Game 5 on April 20, 2019.
Through the first three games of all playoff series in the NHL, the Capitals had a League-high 10 skaters with goals. That marked the second occurrence in franchise history (1986 Divisional Final vs. New York Rangers) the Capitals have had that many players with goals through the first three games of the series.
Since 2018, this has occurred nine times in the NHL, with five of those teams reaching the Stanley Cup Final (last: Tampa Bay, 2021). Alex Ovechkin (1g, 3a) and Nicklas Backstrom (1g, 3a) lead the Caps with four points through the first three games.
Lars Eller
Lars Eller met with the media following morning skate. “We can’t let up. We talked a little bit of like an angry mindset, just be fired up … we just want to copy as many things as we can from last game going into today. Same preparation. Same thinking.”
Nick Jensen
Defenseman Nick Jensen also met with the media following the team’s morning skate. “We can be a little bit tighter defensively. Game 1 we were really good, I don’t think they had a lot of looks. This is a really lethal team … they know how to finish.”
Peter Laviolette
“We need to come out and play a really strong game. We’re going to have an opponent that’s ready. We know that, so we’re going to have to play well.”
By Jon Sorensen
I believe the game is set for 7pm (puck drop at 7:07pm). That is what NHL has listed and what is on my digital ticket. have you heard otherwise?
Yep, corrected, thank DWG. 👊
Lot of “rumors” going around about Willy. He looked fine on social media yesterday.
Thanks Jon! Can’t wait to go tonight. I’m slightly distracted at work and its only the first round! Exciting! Hope Sammy is mentally strong and we play the system!